Mercedes is going through a tough time in the 2022 Formula 1 season. The team's W13 car last year was affected by the ripple issue, and the team struggled with a small ride height operating window for where their car was generating downforce. This effectively forced him to work very close to the ground.

This had the double effect of risking bouncing as downforce levels increased, but the same zamAt the time, it required the vehicle to be operated with stiff suspension, which caused the vehicle to suffer problems on uneven tracks and curbs.

For this year's W14, the team aimed to provide downforce over a much wider ride-height range, and felt that the FIA's 15mm raising of the ground edges would help.

However, it appears that Mercedes has been very cautious in its approach to ride height. Being shy about driving close to the ground, Mercedes found itself driving much higher than the others, which again left it behind in terms of performance.

This was confirmed by coach James Allison and Allison said the decision was due to their desire to avoid the risk of volatility problems.

“Although we made great progress last year, 2023 introduced a rule change that gave all teams some protection against volatility,” Allison said. said.

“During the winter we were faced with a choice. Be aggressive and trade bounce protection on a rule change for performance, or take the more cautious route and stay away from the kind of bounce that ruined our season last year.”

“We took the cautious path, knowing that if we were wrong, the correction would be less painful. The story of our year so far has mostly been about recognizing that we were being too cautious and making changes to correct it.” said.

The extremely complex nature of current-generation cars, based on exploiting vortices under the floor, means that making a radical change in ride height means almost completely rethinking aero maps – something that's not really possible mid-season.

Mercedes thinks it can only solve this issue with winter work.

Technical chief Mike Elliott believes everything will be handled correctly with the W2022 in 2024, after having a very low ride height in 15 and a very high ride height this year.

Asked by Autosport if Mercedes had found the right spot, Elliott said: "The real challenge is, if you look at the aero testing constraints, you can only do a very limited amount of work and you have to pick a direction and follow it." said.

“If you say, “I want to develop a car for high ride height or low ride height, and I want to be able to cover all my bases, that's it. zamthe moment you suddenly get three rides a week for each one and get nowhere.”

“So you have to pick a direction and go in that direction. Then as you learn, you can change that direction and change direction slightly. I like to think we put ourselves in the right place for the winter.” said.

While Mercedes is currently dedicating most of its focus to the 2024 car, Elliott said that won't stop him from developing the W14 as much as he can.

“I think we still have things to learn and we still have second place to fight in the championship. We will continue to develop it, but of course our focus right now is next year's car."

Elliott does not think that continuing to develop this year's car will overshadow efforts for next season, although it is expected to have a very different design.

“Basically, we want to win world championships,” Elliott said. I think that is our main focus and we will strive to do so.” said.

“I think when you try to develop a brand new car, when you make architectural changes, it's hard to maintain that pace in the tunnel. So actually, some of the work we've done for this year's car is helping to learn on the track without really hampering next year's car.” said.